Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Debangshu Panda secured an overwhelming victory in West Bengal’s Falta Assembly repoll on Saturday, according to data from the Election Commission.Panda defeated his Communist Party of India (Marxist) rival Sambhu Nath Kurmi by 1,09,021 votes. The Trinamool Congress candidate had withdrawn from the contest days before polling.According to the Election Commission, Panda had secured 1.49 lakh votes, while CPI(M) candidate Sambhu Nath Kurmi had polled 40,645 votes.On Tuesday, TMC’s Jahangir Khan withdrew from the race, just as the 48-hour silence period came into effect in the constituency. He claimed that he took the decision “for Falta’s development and the public good” after a special package announced by Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.The TMC said that the withdrawal of the candidature was Khan’s “personal decision and not that of the party”.However, since his withdrawal came after the nomination deadline, Khan’s name remained on the ballot and he also polled over 7,400 votes.While voting in Falta was held on April 29, the Election Commission on May 2 ordered repolling in the constituency citing “severe electoral offences” and alleged “subversion of the democratic process”. There had been allegations of electoral malpractices in the seat.The fresh vote was held on May 21 and votes were being counted on Sunday.The poll panel said that it had received complaints from political parties and candidates, and there were reports “alleging application of black adhesive tape/perfume on ballot unit buttons of EVMs [Electronic Voting Machines] in favour of or against particular political parties”.A probe report by the poll panel found that voting machines in at least 60 of the 285 polling stations in the constituency had been tampered with.On May 4, the BJP defeated the TMC in the state polls, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.The TMC alleged that since the election result, more than 100 of its workers had been arrested in Falta. “Several party offices have been vandalised, shut down and forcibly captured in broad daylight through intimidation, while the EC continues to turn a blind eye despite repeated complaints,” the Banerjee-led party alleged.On Sunday as well, Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that over 1,000 political workers had been forced to flee their homes in Falta in the past ten days, to which he claimed that the Election Commission had turned a blind eye.Banerjee also claimed that there were “glaring inconsistencies” in the counting process. “By 3:30 pm in the afternoon today all 21 rounds were completed,” he said in a social media post. “On 4th May, till the same time, only 2- 4 rounds had taken place. The country deserves an explanation from the ECI.”Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.Also read: How slow counting of votes in Bengal helped BJP win a lost seat from TrinamoolOne mostly Muslim booth flipped a controversial Bengal seat – 97% of its vote went to BJP